At this stage students will be dealing with text as they look for and use information, the following suggestions are designed to help them with this process:
During:
How
Using Technology
Why?
Reading text from books
Read Aloud Technique The teacher models the process of ‘getting to grips’ with new text by verbalizing their own steps to understand new text. Make explicit the use of cues such as headings, sub-headings, words in bold print and summaries
Many students are not aware of the cues on pages of text that can help them build some understanding of what the text is about before they begin to read
Reading together
HOT ROD (hand over text, recall on demand) Students work in pairs, one reads the first paragraph on a given text aloud to their partner. The same person, then covers the paragraph with their hand and recalls the meaning of the paragraph to their partner. The 2nd person then reads the next paragraph out, covering the text when they have finished the paragraph and recalling the content to their partner. Students alternate throughout the text.
Shared reading makes text more manageable for students and allows for ‘controlled talking’ Reading to peers is less threatening than reading to the class as a whole
Easier to read websites
Make sure the readability of websites is 60-70 or higher on the Flesch Reading ease scale.
Time is of the essence, there is no point in having students trying to cope with websites where the text is too difficult for them to understand
Try sites like Twurdy– a search engine that colour codes sites to show readability levels
NOODLETools helps to narrow searches more specifically
Teach students what ‘good websites’ look like
Use Read Aloud Strategy to take students through a ‘good’ and ‘poor’ website – find out what to look for (this links to a video that is slow to load but comprehensive in its coverage of critiquing websites)
Use teams/groups of students to hunt for say 3 good websites – provide guidelines of what makes a good website. This can be done using a checklist, such as Kathy Shrock’s: The 5 W’s of Web Site Evaluation
Enabling students to be critical users of the world wide web, helps them to become competent and confident digital citizens
Visual representations of knowledge helps students organize and remember information
Graphic organisers
Use graphic organizers for students to gather information – the structured approach often helps students to hone in on what is needed
‘Finding patterns helps students organize their ideas so that they can later recall and apply what they have learned. Research has shown an increase in understanding of geometry when students learn to represent and visualize three-dimensional forms’ (Bransford et al., 1999; Lehrer & Chazen, 1998).
Key vocabulary
Continue to focus on vocabulary adding in to wallwisher,
At this stage students will be dealing with text as they look for and use information, the following suggestions are designed to help them with this process:
During:
The teacher models the process of ‘getting to grips’ with new text by verbalizing their own steps to understand new text. Make explicit the use of cues such as headings, sub-headings, words in bold print and summaries
Students work in pairs, one reads the first paragraph on a given text aloud to their partner. The same person, then covers the paragraph with their hand and recalls the meaning of the paragraph to their partner. The 2nd person then reads the next paragraph out, covering the text when they have finished the paragraph and recalling the content to their partner. Students alternate throughout the text.
Reading to peers is less threatening than reading to the class as a whole